DietBetting

During the month of May, I participated in not one, but TWO DietBets. A DietBet is basically a bet that you’ll lose 4% of your starting weight in 4 weeks. Whoever reaches their goal at the final weigh-in splits the pot. I learned of this magical monetary motivation through a colleague and have been hooked since March! I won a bet in March, lost April (stupid spring break) and just won $84.38 from my May bet!!! The second of my bets is actually a live bet that some work friends and I are doing and this morning is the final weigh-in. I’ll post later whether I won or not. 😉

That said, I wanted to share some thoughts on the whole DietBet concept, some pro’s and con’s.

Pro’s:

Money is a huge motivator. It’s a lot easier to find motivation to get up off the couch and go workout if you know that your $25 or more is on the line! My goal throughout the bets was to break even; if I didn’t necessarily make any more, because others hit their goal too, I was cool with that. Even more cool with the idea of making a little more than I bet!

It’s convenient. There are games starting all the time online and it’s super easy to find one that fits your schedule so you can consider vacation time, big events, etc.

The bet’s time frame is a great starting point for a weight loss focus. It’s one thing to say, “oh, I want to lose XX lbs,” but when you realize how difficult that is, you can easily lose motivation. Four weeks is just long enough to see results, but is short enough so you don’t feel like you’re going crazy waiting and waiting for it to end.

The app is pretty convenient too. Although it crashes literally every time I tap the icon, once I relog in, it’s fine. It’s easy to enter your unofficial weights as you progress, upload your initial and final weight pics (no worries, these are private unless you make them public), check out the leaderboard and cheer on your friends.

Con’s:

I initially didn’t think this would ever be a factor for me, because I’m pretty logical and don’t let myself get carried away with things like numbers on the scale, but… I GOT HUNG UP ON THE NUMBER ON THE SCALE! This isn’t necessarily a bad thing to check your weight frequently – just remember to use the week’s average, rather than each day’s weight – but during this last week, I felt so much self-inflicted pressure to hit my goal that it was starting to stress me out. Apparently, I’m a lot more competitive than I thought, and I just kept thinking about how pissed I’d be if I lost. This was good in the fact that it pushed me through my final week, but bad in that I kept thinking about it all. the. time. I want to continue working towards my goals, but not in an obsessive way like that.

All in all, I’m glad to have done them the last couple months, and I’m actually doing an online DietBet (here’s the link if you’d like to join!) since I had a $25 credit from the site, but after that, I’m donzo.

I’ll update later with the results of the live bet. Wish me luck!!!

UPDATE: Won my work DietBet! I split the $350 pot with two other lovely ladies and won $117!!!!